


with every heartbeat i have left, i'll defend your every breath

by MagicaLyss



Series: A Sky Full of Stars {Irondad Febuwhump} [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Adult Peter Parker, F/M, Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Michelle Jones Needs a Hug, Parent Peter Parker, Peter Parker Has a Family, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:30:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22581796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagicaLyss/pseuds/MagicaLyss
Summary: Febuwhump Day 5 & 6 - Intruder & Fire“Is June safe?” Peter asks, desperation coloring his voice. His hands are shaking and he’s pretty sure he’s hurt, but he doesn’t have the time to care.His fiancée and baby are home with an intruder. And Peter’s across the city.“She’s in her room,” MJ whispers, obviously trying not to be heard by whoever’s in the house. “Maybe they saw Spider-Man out and- and knew to come here.”Peter’s hands are trembling so badly that he almost misses the next web he throws. “Fuck, I’m coming as fast as I can. Just- just stay safe, okay? Please. I- I’ll be there soon, I promise.”
Relationships: Michelle Jones/Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: A Sky Full of Stars {Irondad Febuwhump} [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1619647
Comments: 3
Kudos: 176





	with every heartbeat i have left, i'll defend your every breath

Peter hadn’t been patrolling as often as he used to, ever since their baby was born. It was more important for him to be at home with his family. The risk he was taking was too great, now that he had a baby.  
  


He knew what it was like to grow up fatherless. He had father-figures with Ben and then Tony, but his biological dad died when he was so young. He grew up without his dad. He knew how much that can affect a child firsthand. That was the last thing he wanted for his baby.  
  


Plus, he just loves the domesticity of nights at home with his fiancée and child. There was something so beautiful about dinners together and bed times and movie nights. It was so peaceful and wonderful, and he always hated going out just in case his baby woke up in the middle of the night.  
  


Even the thought of getting hurt made him shudder. He’s already put so much stress on May and Tony, MJ and Ned, from the nights spent out as a hero. They don’t want to lose him, and he can’t lose them either.  
  


But occasionally, he can’t help himself.  
  


The nagging feeling that somebody would be getting hurt and he’s not there to protect them constantly hangs onto his mind, sneaks into his lungs and plants itself as guilt.  
  


“I’ll be back before you know it,” he murmurs, pressing a kiss to MJ’s forehead.  
  


She smiles sleepily, nodding. “Go do your thing, Spider-Man.”  
  


“I love you.”  
  


“Be safe. I love you too.”  
  


He swings out the window, reveling in the feeling of wind whipping past his head and the sounds of the city, alive even in the dead of night.  
  


“Karen?” he says. “Make sure the Baby Monitor 2.0 is hooked up to my screen and working, and then find me the nearest crime.”  
  


“Baby Monitor 2.0 is up and running,” she responds, just as kindly as ever. The little picture in the bottom of his screen shows his baby with a sound wave that stays flat.  
  


He hooked the baby monitor in their baby’s room up to his suit. He can make sure to head home as soon as he sees a spike in the noise.  
  


“There’s a robbery occurring three blocks away from here, a car theft seven blocks away, and a mugging nearby.”  
  


Peter can’t help but smile at the feeling of finally being out, _helping_ , for the first time in months. And with the flat baby monitor wave, he doesn’t have the lingering guilt of leaving his kid at home.  
  


*  
  
  
That is, until, MJ calls him.  
  


“Hey! What’s up? Isn’t a little late to be-”  
  


“I think there’s someone in the house.”  
  


Peter freezes up, world spinning around him as he focuses on MJ’s whispered words.  
  


“What?”  
  


MJ sniffles quietly, and speaks even lower. “I think I hear someone in the kitchen. If it’s not you, I don’t know who’s here. The doors were locked when we came up to bed. The only people with keys are us, Ned, Tony, and May. Tony and May are in Canada, chaperoning Morgan’s trip, and Ned just went to Australia for work.”  
  


Peter hurries to hit the guy across from him, probably too hard with the way he falls to the ground like a stone. He doesn’t have the time to care, though, already swinging towards their home as fast as he can.  
  


“I need- Is- Is June safe?” Peter asks, desperation coloring his voice. His hands are shaking and he’s pretty sure he’s hurt, but he doesn’t have the time to care.  
  


His fiancée and baby are home with an intruder. And Peter’s across the city.  
  


“She’s in her room,” MJ whispers, obviously trying not to be heard by whoever’s in the house. “Maybe they saw Spider-Man out and- and knew to come here.”  
  


Peter’s hands are trembling so badly that he almost misses the next web he throws. “Fuck, I’m coming as fast as I can. Just- just stay safe, okay? Please. I- I’ll be there soon, I promise.”  
  


His fiancée hums in agreement, but it sounds like she’s crying or trying not to. And Peter hates it. He hates that he’s not there, that he left in the first place.  
  


“I’m on my way, my love, I’ll be there. I’ll protect you and June as soon as I can.”  
  


Their house is finally in sight. Only one light is on, the bathroom light which Peter must’ve left on earlier, but there’s no sign of anybody on the main floor.  
  


“I’m here, I’m here, everything’s going to be okay,” Peter reassures, but MJ stays quiet, the only indication of life is her even breaths.  
  


Peter gets to the front door just as fire explodes through the whole main floor of the house.  
  


For a moment, all Peter can do is watch as the windows explode outwards, shattering glass in his direction, and Peter fumbles away from the heat as the windows of the door shatter.  
  


The little screen with June’s face suddenly lights up, the sound waves jumping.  
  


“Peter?” MJ shouts. “I can’t- I can’t get to June. Please- You have to- I can’t get her.”  
  


It jolts Peter into action, swinging forward into the flames.  
  


Almost immediately, the heat swelters around him, fires licking up every piece of furniture and wall in the house, even the stairs are catching fire.  
  


“Gasoline,” he says, just as the smell hits him. “Fuck, I’m coming, sweetheart, just stay right where you are. I’m coming to get you.”  
  


He fumbles for the stairs, heat searing his legs and arms, eyes watering even as his mask filters out the majority of the smoke rising around him.  
  


Vision blurring, all he can see is fire, he stumbles up the stairs, uncaring of the flames that curl around his feet. All he knows is that he needs to get June and MJ to safety. The intruder, the fire, everything comes after them.  
  


June is standing in her crib, clinging onto the bars to keep herself steady.  
  


“Daddy!” she wails, one little hand reaching for him. Smoke is already pouring into the room as he stumbles in. He can feel blood on his leg, some injury from earlier in the night, and it makes his movements even weaker and uncoordinated.  
  


She’s wearing her little Iron Man onesie, a gift from her grandpa, but she’s coughing as the smoke reaches her.  
  


“MJ, I’m giving the mask to June. Try to keep her talking to you. I’ll come to get you next,” Peter says. He waits for the little okay before he tugs off his mask.  
  


His baby, the little angel, the light of his life, is crying, hands clenching and unclenching, reaching out for him.  
  


He slips the mask onto her head, hoping it’ll help filter as much air as possible to keep her breathing clean air. And then he scoops her into his arms, tucking her against his chest.  
  


“Hey, baby, Daddy’s got you. I’ll keep you safe,” he murmurs, pressing kisses to her hand that he holds.  
  


Lungs burning, eyes watering, knees weak, he pushes forward to the master bedroom. He just has to hope the intruder, whoever started the fire, knows better than to stick around.  
  


MJ’s sitting on the edge of their bed, phone cradled against her ear.  
  


“Peter,” she breathes, standing quickly. She’s got a shirt, one of his shirts, pressed to her mouth as some sort of makeshift filter as well. He doesn’t know how much it’s helping, but he just has to get them out of here.  
  


He passes June over to her, pressing kisses to both of their foreheads, and then he heads for the window.  
  


Shattering upon impact when he shoves a shoulder to it, the smoke starts billowing out of the room as fast as it came in.  
  


But the ground is shaking and there are flames curling under the door, and he has to get them out of here before it’s too late.  
  


Keeping June cradled between them, MJ hangs onto his side and he wraps one arm tightly around her waist before swinging out the window just as the floor crumbles underneath them.  
  


They land on the grass, Peter taking the majority of the force, but they’re out. They’re safe.  
  


“Karen, send a message to Mister Stark about what happened,” Peter instructs. “MJ, take June and get her to the hospital. I’ll meet you there.”  
  


“Peter, you can’t go back in there!” MJ exclaims, tears falling down her face. “It’s dangerous!”  
  


He shakes his head. “I have to find who did this. Who tried to hurt you and our baby. Please, make sure you’re okay and I’ll meet you at the hospital.”  
  


Leaning up to his fiancée, he kisses her gently, and then he presses a kiss to June’s knuckles.  
  


“I love you.”  
  


And then he takes off.  
  


The whole house is crumbling when he pushes his way inside. As an afterthought, he realizes he definitely should’ve taken his mask back from June, but it’s too late now, so he pushes past the burning in his lungs.  
  


“Where are you?” he shouts, shoving away fallen debris to get to the kitchen.  
  


He’s not exactly sure what his plan is. Whether he wants to kill whoever set the fire for almost hurting his fiancée and baby, or if he wants to find the intruder to make sure they make it out of here without dying.  
  


Either way, he knows he needs to get to the intruder.  
  


“Hello?” he calls out, squinting through the smoke and flames towards the living room.  
  


The last time he remembers a fire this bad was way back when he was a stupid kid in a onesie fighting Toomes on the beach. There had been so much fire and he remembers his chest hurting for days afterwards.  
  


Now, he’s just a stupid kid in a high-tech suit. Well, he’s not a kid anymore. He’s twenty-four, he has a child of his own. But he doesn’t feel like more than a scared little kid as he pushes his way further into the burning building.  
  


“Please! I’m just trying to help!” he shouts louder. The ceiling is creaking above him, all he can see is fire. He’s pretty sure he’s bleeding and burned. “Hello?”  
  


And then he sees the body under the dining room table, a bottle of empty gasoline discarded next to him.  
  


Peter stumbles as fast as he can on his aching legs towards the man, body trembling as he coughs and coughs and coughs, unable to draw in a real breath.  
  


His spidey-sense is ringing almost painfully, hair on the back of his neck standing in anticipation.  
  


He’s run out of time.  
  


He surges forward once again, throwing all of his energy into making it to the man. As soon as he reaches the intruder, he grabs him under the arms and legs and throws him as hard as he can at the back door.  
  


The glass shatters and the man flies through the air before landing with a quiet groan of pain in the safety of the grass.  
  


And then the roof above Peter collapses inward.  
  


  
*  
  
  
When Peter comes to, it’s to the sound of a soft voice.  
  


“ _And the itsy bitsy spider climbed up the spout again_.”  
  


He blinks his eyes open, hands fumbling for his oxygen mask as soon as he can remember how to use his muscles.  
  


Tony’s hands immediately cover his, pulling them away from his face.  
  


“Hush, Spider-Baby, that’s helping you,” he murmurs, adjusting the mask again.  
  


June is curled up in Tony’s lap, fast asleep against his chest. A stack of children’s books sit on the nightstand. MJ and Morgan are passed out on the couch pushed to the corner of the room. May and Pepper’s voices are muffled through the wall.  
  


Peter reaches for his oxygen mask again, pushing it up just a little bit. “She okay?”  
  


A soft expression passing over his face, Tony nods. “She’s just fine and so is Michelle. They’ve just been worried sick about you. I got to the house just as the roof came down on top of you.”  
  


Peter hums, letting the mask fall snuggly against his face again. He looks up at Tony curiously.  
  


“I was worried sick about you,” Tony continues quietly. “I thought- I didn’t know if I was going to get you out of there fast enough. But I did and you’re okay now, kiddo.”  
  


Guilt strikes Peter deeply, making him shiver. He pushes himself up into a sitting position despite Tony’s protests, and he pushes his oxygen mask off.  
  


“How do you do it?” he asks, feeling small and young. Like he felt after he woke up in the hospital after Toomes and the warehouse disaster. “How do you hang up the suit?”  
  


Tony looks at him for a long moment like Peter’s an equation Tony’s trying to solve.  
  


Eventually, he speaks, voice low. “Do you _want_ to hang up the superhero gig?”  
  


Peter knows the answer before he has to think about it. “No. I’ve realized it’s not my responsibility to save everyone. But helping people? It’s what I’m good at. I just- I can’t stop thinking about Ben and, you know, with great power comes great responsibility-”  
  


“Except it’s not your responsibility.”  
  


“I know, but I can’t stop thinking about it. Like- Like all those fathers who would’ve never gotten their daughters home, and all the husbands who never got to see their wives again, when _I_ could’ve stopped it. I just- I don’t think I could stop. Not yet, at least.”  
  


Tony offers a gentle smile. “It’s personal now, isn’t it?”  
  


Peter looks down at June, curled up in Tony’s lap. So young, so innocent to the horrors of the world.  
  


“I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to her. I don’t want anyone to go through that if I can help it.”  
  


Tony tenderly lifts Peter’s chin with calloused fingers. “You’re too good, you know that?”  
  


Flushing bashfully, Peter ducks away from the compliment. “Maybe I just had some good role models growing up… I just- I need better protection for them. I can’t have them in danger.”  
  


“I’ll handle it. What kind of eccentric grandfather would I be if I didn’t go all out on crazy overprotections? Actually, I don’t think I ever told you, but I bought back the tower after Toomes all those years ago. You guys can live there. I don’t know any safer place they could be than at the Tower.”  
  


“Thank you,” Peter murmurs. He takes June’s hand, gently pressing a kiss to her fingers. “I know you’ve got my back and I’ve got theirs. We’ll be okay.”  
  


“Yeah, we’ll be okay.”  
  


Tony situates the oxygen mask over Peter’s face once again, and pushes him against the pillows.  
  


Peter falls asleep, the last of his anxiety finally silenced.  
  


They’ll be okay.  
  


**Author's Note:**

> [My Tumblr](https://lyssismagical.tumblr.com/)


End file.
